Fiber-cleaning machine.



G. G. SARGENT. FIBER CLEANING MACHINE. APPLICATION FILED APR.24,1907.

Patented Dec. 28, 1909;

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Witnesses.

c. G. SARGBNT. FIBER CLEANING MACHINE. APPLIOATION FILED APR. 24, 1907-Patented Dec. 28, 1909.

o uu Inventor v T "m a kv Attorneys.

run STATES n rnivr onmon.

CHARLES G. SARGENT, 0F WESTFORD; MASSACHUSETTS.

FIBER-CLEANTNG MACHINE.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, CHARLES G. SARGENT, a citizen of the United States,residing at estford, in the county of Middles'ex and State ofMassachusetts, have invented a new and useful Fiber-Cleanin Machine, ofwhich the following is a specification.

This invention relates to fiber cleaning machines, and particularly tothat style of machine which is used for removing burs and otherimpurities from wool or cotton which style of machine is commonly termeda bur picker. This style of machine consists of a revolving main orpicking cylinder to which the stock is fed so that it will be combed outthereon to allow the heavier impurities to drop therefrom. The stock istaken from the picking cylinder by a burcylinder, usually rotating inopposition to the picking cylinder, and engaging the stock after itpasses onto the bur cylinder is a guard which usually is made in theform of a rapidly rotating cylinder having bars or floats, whichcylinder is set just to scrape the surface of the stock, and thereby toseparate and throw out any burs or other impurities. An air draft isarranged so that as this action takes place any fibers of stock whichmay be knocked ofi from the bur cylinder by the guard are sucked backonto the body of the stock in the machine, this current of air beingadjusted so as not to be strong enough to suck back onto the main bodyof the stock the burs or other impurities which are separated by theguard. The treated stock is then taken from the bur cylinder by a brush.Attempts have been made to improve the quality and increase the quantityof work done on these machines by arranging the machines to have two burcylinders to take the stock from the picking cylinder so as to treatthestock at the two points where it thus leaves the main cylinder. Theseprior machines, however, have been disadvantageous in operation, becauseby their constructions the burs or impurities removed by one guard havenecessarily been thrown back into the stock and have not been removedtherefrom as they should be.

In my United States Patent No. 868,944, ranted Oct. 22, 1907, I haveillustrated and described a machine of this eneral character, in which apair of bur-cylinders are employed, each independently taking stock fromthe picking cylinder, and each being provided with a separate bur escapear- Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed April 24, 1907.

Patented Dec. 28, 1909.

Serial No. 369,897.

ranged to direct the burs away from the picking cylinder. In this casethe stock is operated upon by the guard on one side only.

The principal object of the present invention is to provide meanswhereby the stock can be operated upon twice by guards located onopposite sides thereof, the stock.

being delivered directly from primary burcylinders, such as thosedisclosed in the above mentioned patent, to secondary bur cylinders, theburs from the guards being delivered independently outside the machineso that there will be no chance of the burs coming back into a positionwhere they may be deposited on the untreated fiber.

This invention preferably is applied to a machine of the character setforth in my above mentioned patent and has a primary set and in additiona secondary set of bur cylinders, each set comprising two or morecylinders.

By the use of a machine constructed in accordance with this inventionthe quality and quantity of the work is greatly improved and increased,the burs and other impurities being removed at several points, andseparated from the stock in a practical and simple way.

The invention will be understood by referring to the accompanyingdrawings, in which- Figure 1 is a sectional elevation illustrating amachine constructed to embody my im-' provement, and Fig. 2 is adiagrammatic view illustrating the arrangement of driving belts andgea-ri-n 2 Referring to the drawing and inv detail, 10 designates thepicking cylinder, consisting of a large drum having teeth or spurs onits periphery. A screen 12 is arranged in a casing or frame 11 above thepicking cylinder 10. A suction fan 13 is arranged on top of the casing,and is rotated by a belt 1a. This fan is arranged to suck out and carryoff all light impurities, dust, etc. liberated from the stock as it isbeing cleaned, and also to perform the function of keeping the stockfrom escaping with the burs.

The stock is fed to the picking cylinder by means of an apron 15 mountedon rollers 16 and 17 which direct the stock to feed rolls 18 and 19,which are teeth to take the stock oni the apron'and rovided with j spur.

I The bottom of the casing or frame is made i in the form of a box 20having a door 21, and a rack or series of bars 22 is arranged under thepicking cylinder, whereby as the stock is combed out and taken onto thepicking cylinder 10, all heavy dirt, etc. will drop down through therack or screen.

Cooperating with the picking cylinder is a bur cylinder 23 which I willhereafter speak of as the lower bur cylinder. This cylinder is arrangedto take part of the stock from the picking cylinder. This bur cylinderis rotated in opposition to the picking cylinder for this purpose. It isprovided with a guard 24 preferably made in the form of a rapidlyrotating cylinder having floats arranged to beat or strike on one sideof the stock or sliver taken from the picking cylinder by the burcylinder.

As so far described this mechanism is substantially the same as thatshown in my above identified patent, except that the guard is preferablylocated not directly underneath the bur cylinder, but as far up thedelivery side thereof as is practicable so that the guard directstheburs and other impurities downwardly,

.T e ca aww yah es y i 23 1s arrangedfleavin'g a bur escape 25wherebythebursdroptothe floor The casing extends upwardly to a point above thepath of the burs delivered from the guard to prevent the burs enteringthe casing in which the picking cylinder is located. An upper burcylinder 28 is also arranged to take stock independently from thepicking cylinder 10. The bur cylinders-23 and 28 constitute the primaryset shown in my prior application. A guard 29 is arranged in connectionwith the cylinder 28, and the casing is so formed that a bur escape 30is provided under the cylinder 28 and guard 29, this bur escape'being inthe form of a trough formed on a partition or wall 251 and opening outof one or both sides of the machine through the frame 11. The guard 29may conveniently be located in a position with respect to its burcylinder 23 similar to that of the guard 24 with respect to its burcylinder 28 and for the same reason. Burs and other impurities may beremoved from the several bur escapes by an attendant-or in any desiredway.

It will be observed that the bur'escape 30 comes above the bur cylinder23 and below the bur cylinder 28.

The guards 24 and 29 operate on one side pl only of the stock althoughthey remove most ofIthe larger burs. I11 order to provide for operatingon the other side, a secondary set o fiburicylindersl 230 and '280 isarranged adjacent to the cylinders 23 and 28 and are r'otate.d atahigherspeedinLthe direction ofthe' arrows, so as'to take the stockdirectly from the respectively.

primary cylinders 23 and The secondary bur cylinders are provided withguards 240 and 290 respectively which in this instance are located abovetheir respective bur'cylinders so as to deliver the burs, etc.-, intothe bur-escapes 30 and 300 to deliver the burs independently and preventtheir coming back into contact with the picking cylinder. Rotatingbrushes 26 and 31 are arranged to take the stock from the bur cylinders230 and 280 and pass the same into chutes or stock escapes 27 and 32respectively.

The casing is provided at its front with the usual draft regulator orregister 84 and door 35. By ad usting the register and door the degreeof suction exerted by the suction fan 13 at the back of the machine canbe adjusted.

It will be noticed that an air inlet is provided through each bur escape25 and 30, and by the adjustment above mentioned, the flow of airthroughthe same is adjusted. As the air flows in through or over the burescapes, it necessarily passes through the two layers of stock or fiberpassing from the picking cylinder to the primary bur cylin dersandrthfus sucks back any stock fibers knocked off from these burcylinders bythe. guards and at the same time, adjustment'is madeso thatthe. burs or impurities which have a greater specific gravity than thefibers will drop through or into the bur escapes.

By providing bur-escapes to direct the burs and impurities removed bythe plurality of guards outside of the machine, the quality of the workis improved, because the fibers are thoroughly opened out and dusted,and there is no possibility of any of the burs or imperfections whichare removed being thrown back into the machine, and the quantity of thework is increased because much more stock can be fed to the machine thanwhere a single bur cylinder is used, as each bur cylinder will take itsshare of stock. One convenient way for driving the parts is shown inFig. 2. A. pulley 36 is arranged on the shaft of the picking cylinder 10and is driven by belt 37. A pulley 38 is arranged on the shaft of thepicking cylinder,

and pulleys 39 and 40 are arranged 011 the der, and by belt 50udrives apulley 51121.11 ranged on a stud, whichpulley 51 has'a pulley 52.turning therewith, which, by

means of belt 53 drives a pulley 54 on a stud.

By means of gears 55 and 56 the lowerfeed roll 18 is rotated, and thetwo feed rolls are geared together by gears 57 and 58.

The front roller 17 of the apron is provided with a gear 59 which mesheswith an intermediate 60, which latter meshes with the gear 57 on thelower feed roll 18, whereby the apron is turned at the proper speed.

The mechanism so far described is driven from the pulley 36, or from theshaft of the picker cylinder. The rotary brushes 26 and 31 are alsoprovided with pulleys 45 and as which are driven by belts 47 and 48,which are in turn driven by pulleys 61 and 62 on the shafts of the burcylinders 23 and 28 respectively. The brushes, therefore, are drivenindirectly from the shaft of the picker-cylinder.

From the power shaft (not shown) which drives the picker cylinder, crossbelts 63 and 6% drive a pair of pulleys 65 and 66 which are of such sizethat they rotate at a higher speed than the pulleys 39 and 40. Thesepulleys are mounted on the shafts on which the secondary bur cylinders230 and 280 are mounted. On the same shafts are a pair of pulleys 67 and68 which drive belts 69 and 7 0 passing over pulleys 71 and 72 on theshafts of the guards 240 and 290.

It is within the scope of this invention to use one large rotating brushin place of the brushes 26 and 31 to co-act with the secondary burcylinders 230 and 280 without in terfering with their guards and burescapes, but the preferred arrangement is to use two rotary brushes.Obviously any desired kind of driving mechanism may be employed tooperate the various elements provided they are turned in such a way asto secure the above desired results, without departing from the scope ofthis invention as expressed in the claims.

-Having thus fully described my invention what I claim and desire tosecure by Letters Patent is 1. In a fiber cleaning machine, thecombination with the picking cylinder, a plurality of primary burcylinders each independently taking stock from the picking cylinder, anda guard for each primary bur cylinder, of aplurality of secondary burcylinders each entirely out of contact with the picking cylinder andtaking stock directly from the surface of one of the primary burcylinders whereby they work on opposite surfaces of the stock, a guardfor each of said secondary bur cylinders, a separate stock escape foreach secondary bur cylinder, means for receiving the burs after the samehave been thrown from the stock by said last named guards and preventingthe same from passing back into the stock, and means for rotating thesecondary bur cylinder at a higher rate of speed than the primary burcylinders, and in the opposite direction.

In a fiber cleaning machine, the combination with the picking cylinder,and two primary bur cylinders arranged one above the other, eachindependently taking stock from the picking cylinder, of two secondarybur cylinders arranged one above the other, and each in horizontalalinement with one of the primary bur cylinders, and entirely out ofcontact with the picking cylinder, each taking stock directly from oneof the primary bur cylinders, and operating on the other side of thestock, a guard for each bur cylinder, and bur escapes for said guards,one of said bur escapes being below the lower pair of cylinders, oneabove the upper pair and one between the two pairs of bur cylinders.

3. In a fiber cleaning machine, the combination with the pickingcylinder, a plurality of primary bur cylinders each independently takingstock from the picking cylinder, and a guard for each primary burcylinder, of a plurality of secondary bur cylinders each entirely out ofcontact with the picking cylinder, and taking stock directly from thesurface of one of the primary bur cylinders, whereby they work onopposite surfaces of the stock, a guard for each of said secondary burcylinders, two brushes, each for taking stock from one of the secondarybur cylinders, and separate stock escapes for the two brushes.

4. In a fiber cleaning machine, the combination with a picking cylinder,of a primary bur cylinder, a second bur cylinder rotating 100 out ofcontact with the picking cylinder and directly in contact with the firstbur cylinder and in the opposite direction, means for rotating thesecond bur cylinder at a higher rate of speed than the first burcylinder, 105 whereby it will take stock directly therefrom, and operateon the other side of the stock, a guard for each bur cylinder, burescapes for said guards, and a rotary brush for taking stock from thesecond bur cylin- 110 der and a stock escape, both bur cylinders, thebrush, and stock escape being substantially in a horizontal plane.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand, in the presence of twosubscribing 5 witnesses.

CHAS. G. SARGENT.

WVitnesses OSBORN I-I. GILLEY, WM. F. SAReEN'r.

